30 Day Color Challenge: Day 1 (officially)

Hi Crafty Friends!

Yesterday I posted that I was taking TheDailyMarker’s 30 day color challenge to complete 30 handmade project life cards. Well I guess I was a little excited and the official start date is TODAY…. so I will end up doing 31 cards during this challenge.

30 day marker challenge from TheDailyMarker.com

For today’s Project life card I am using two different Close To My Heart stamp sets. The first is the CTMH Stamp of the month : Choose Happy, the second set is Your own kind of wonderful. I was so excited to use the new SOTM that this was a perfect time to break it out. This design would work fantastic on a card as well and you could put pretty much anything in the frames.

choose happyyourownkindofwonderfulHere is the PL card that I created.

PL card using CTMH March SOTM: Choose Happy @Thecraftypickle.com

I stamped the frame with Memento black ink and then masked off the frame leaving the center open to stamp the butterflies. I used Copic markers to color in the large butterfly and then covered with CTMH Liquid Glass. Once everything was dry, I cut out the frame and used foam adhesive to pop it up on top of another framed stamped image on a 3×4 card.

PL card using CTMH March SOTM: Choose Happy @Thecraftypickle.com

Now I have a fun spring filler card for my Project Life album.

Thanks so much for visiting. See you back tomorrow for day #2 of the color challenge!

Happy Crafting!
The Crafty Pickle

Kathy’s 30 Day Color Challenge!

Hi Crafty Friends,

If you haven’t heard, Kathy, From TheDailyMarker.com is starting a 30 day color challenge starting today though April 2nd. I read about her idea and thought this was a great opportunity to do something creative every day for 30 days. I get caught up in a lot of things between family, chores, business stuff, ect… That I forget to do something creative for myself. You can read more about her challenge and see how she is preparing for the 30 days HERE.

I have not only decided to play but to put my own little spin on it. For the next 30 days I plan on making 30 colored Project Life cards to use in my 2015 album. I think this will help me get more practice in with a variety of markers, pencils, and watercolors that I have been neglecting.

I was up late last night so I got an early start on today’s coloring. My newly turned 15-year-old had a sushi lunch for his birthday so I made a project life card that will be perfect for that day.

Coloring Challenge day one @TheCraftyPickle.com

For this first card I used the Paper Smooches stamp set “Calorie Free” and my Copic markers. I even added a little wink of stella glitter to the ginger and used some glossy accents for the plastic grass. To finish it off I did some doodle lines around the card.

It’s simple and didn’t take me any time at all but it felt great to get into the creative mode.

Will you be joining me in taking Kathy’s 30 day color challenge? If so, please link me your projects in the comments this month, I would love to see what you will be creating!

Happy Crafting!

The Crafty Pickle

CTMH Lifting Spirits: One Stamp Set. Two Looks.

Hi Crafty Friends!

Today we have something special for you. Design team member, Carrie Bryant, and myself have teamed up to bring you two looks with the CTMH stamp set “Lifting Spirits”.

Here is a photo of the stamp set:

Lifting Spirits by CTMH @thecraftypickle.com

I had a lot of fun creating with this stamp set. It is one of my favorites ever since it showed up as a seasonal set last year. It is now in our annual expressions catalog for $13.95. Not only can you use the sentiments included in the set but there are other sentiments like “Happy Birthday” for example, that would look great in the banner as well.

I wanted to create a one layer card but still show some dimension as well. I chose to use alcohol markers as my main medium and used a bit of ink on the edges.

Here is my finished card

CTMH Lifting Spirits card by Taniesa@TheCraftyPickle.com

I started by stamping out the images and sentiment in Memento Tuxedo Black ink. I colored the clouds, airplane, banner, and background all with alcohol markers. I used the CTMH Touch Twin markers and for extra shading used a few Copic markers as well.

Once everything was dry I took a Wink of Stella clear glitter brush pen and a Sakura Gelly roll clear glitter pen and added glitter accents. I used the Sakura pen where I wanted a high amount of shine (around the lines mostly) and the Wink of Stella as a filler.

CTMH Lifting Spirits card by Taniesa@TheCraftyPickle.com

For the final touch I used CTMH Liquid Glass to cover the body of the airplane to make it all shiny. Once completely dry, I mounted the panel on printed paper and then on a note card. You can kind of see the shiny on the airplane in the photo above.

CTMH Lifting Spirits card by Taniesa@TheCraftyPickle.com

I had a lot of fun making this card. I think this is one of my most favorite CTMH sets so far.

Here is a little peek at Carrie’s card, you will need to visit her blog HERE to see more photos as well as a walk-though on  how she created her card.

CTMH Lifting Spirits by Carrie Bryant for TheCraftyPickle.com

I love the dimensional look she achieved with her card!

I hope you enjoyed our One Stamp Set – Two Looks special feature. Let us know if you would like to see more of these kinds of posts in the future by leaving a comment below. There is some wonderful new stamp sets coming out in April!

Also, don’t forget about our Blog Hop giveaway that closes this Wednesday 2/25. Click HERE to get to the first post in the blog hop.

Have a “Uplifting” week!

Happy Crafting!

The Crafty Pickle

Stretch your supplies: Letter stickers.

What If I told you that you never had to buy colored letter stickers again? You would think I was crazy and continue to load up on a rainbow of colors, right? Well, while I was scrapbooking this weekend I realized that the only sticker letters I really ever needed to buy was white and black, and even black is optional.

I was looking for small orange letter stickers for a project life card title, and I was really frustrated when I couldn’t find any that was the right kinda orange. Then it dawned on me… why couldn’t I take white sticker letters and color them with my markers? So I gave it a whirl and it turned out perfect! For the letters below I used Jillibean soup: Alphabeans, I have also used the Basic Gray: micro letters on another layout and they turned out the same.

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I used an orange and a yellow copic marker. I didn’t want them to be a flat orange but kinda blended looking. I also wanted one word darker than the other. I just colored right on the sticker sheet, easy peasy!

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I loved how they turned out only I thought it needed just a little more pop for this particular journal card, so I took a thin black pen and outlined the letters so they would be just a little more defined and stand out from the card. (see photo below)

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Now, you don’t have to use Copic markers for this. I am positive you can use your water based markers although they might not blend as well. If you do not own any copics or do not want to invest in copics what I would recommend is buying THIS bic permanent marker set. The colors are lovely and with the alcohol base it won’t leave streaks. You could even blend a ombre look to your letters by layering the same color or different colors if you wanted. The Bic markers come in 8, 12, 24 and 36 pens per set. You can also use sharpies, CTMH alcohol based markers, promarkers, etc… the bonus is you will have markers on hand to use for other projects. You won’t have to worry if you have the right color letters to match your layout. Just buy a bunch of white letter stickers in the font you love. Or mix up fonts and make them all the same color.

*Edited to include a sample of different markers*

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Giveaway Time!!!!

Bic Mark it markers

I haven’t had a giveaway in a while and I would love to put these fun markers into the hands of some lucky papercrafter. Here is what you need to do to win.

1. Become a follower of this blog if you aren’t already (little gray button on the lower right hand side)

2. Leave a comment with your name and location. If you have any tips on how you stretch your crafting supplies I would love to hear that too.

3. Stop back by this Saturday May 11th when I will post the winner.
Good Luck and Happy Crafting!